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NIV is used unless otherwise noted.

The Baggage Keeper

Then David
left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper, and ran to the battle line
and entered in order to greet his brothers.

1 Samuel 17:22 (NASB)

How easy is it to release
a suitcase onto the conveyor belt at a busy airport check-in counter with the
possibility of never seeing it again? Airport baggage handlers are trained and
responsible to correctly tag luggage for airline flights, but there are no
guarantees that suitcases will travel on the same flight and be available to
reclaim on the other end.

It’s difficult for me to
leave things in someone else’s care.

Recently, the account of
David and Goliath in chapter 17 of 1 Samuel caught my attention in a fresh way.
Leading up to David’s encounter with the giant Philistine, David’s father,
Jesse, instructed David to get some supplies together to take to his older
brothers at the battle camp. Verse 20 tells us that David left his flock of
sheep with a keeper and took the supplies
and went as Jesse had commanded him.

As I read through verse
22, I realized I want to have a trusting heart like young David did. He obeyed
his father, and twice left his responsibilities with “keepers.” Then he ran to
the battle line, unrestrained.

Corrie ten Boom, who
endured faith-stretching suffering in a concentration camp during WWII,
reflected after the death of her sister: “I have learned to
hold everything loosely, because when I grip them tightly, it hurts when the
Father pries my fingers loose and takes it from me.”

Early Church
reformist, Martin Luther said, “I have held many things in my hands, and have
lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.”

The One Who keeps us waits
for us to release all of our “stuff” to Him in order that we may complete the race
set before us.

Father, may I grow in faith and leave everything in Your capable hands.